Shelley Long

Actor

Born: 23 August 1949

Birthplace: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Best known as:

Diane on the TV show Cheers

Shelley Long starred in the popular television comedy Cheers as the uptight waitress Diane Chambers. (Chambers was the love interest, and comic foil, for the bartender Sam Malone, played by Ted Danson.) In spite of the ongoing success of the show, Shelley Long quit in 1987 to focus on her movie career, with famously uneven results. Her films include the morgue comedy Night Shift (1982, with Michael Keaton), Irreconcilable Differences (1984, with her character sued for divorce by daughter Drew Barrymore), the Girl Scout-ish comedy Troop Beverly Hills (1989), the sitcom-inspired The Brady Bunch Movie (1995, with Long as mother Carol) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996), and Honeymoon With Mom (2006). She began a recurring role in the TV show Modern Family in 2010.

Extra credit:

Shelley Long married investment broker Bruce Tyson in 1981. Their daughter Juliana was born in 1985. They were divorced in 2001... Shelley Long's character on Cheers was briefly engaged to Dr. Frasier Crane (played by Kelsey Grammer), who later was the central character of the hit show Frasier (1994-2004)... As Diane Chambers, Long was nominated for a total of six Emmys, five for Cheers and one for Frasier... Long was taken to the hospital after a drug overdose in 2004; her manager later said she had simply taken too many painkillers for relief from a back injury... Shelley Long attended Northwestern University but did not graduate.